Fringe review: Rough Magic

ROUGH MAGIC by Phillip Psutka (Theatre Arcturus). At Randolph Theatre. July 11 at 1 pm, July 13 at noon, July 14 at 5:45, July 15 at 8 pm. See listing. Rating: NNN

What was life like for Ariel and Caliban on the island of Shakespeare’s The Tempest before Prospero arrived?

Phillip Psutka’s two-hander aims to tell us in a show that combines spoken word and the circus art of aerial silks. Psutka writes credible Shakespearean verse but his delivery as Caliban is overemphatic and Lindsay Bellaire’s as Ariel under-projected.

The production’s most exciting aspect is Bellaire’s performance on aerial silks. where her choreography of climbs, wraps, poses, rolls and drops expresses the spirit’s ethereal and playful nature. The play’s best scene is a wordless duet for Ariel on her silks and Caliban on an aerial rope depicting their friendship before Caliban’s mother, Sycorax, separated them.

As a play, Rough Magic has two problems. First, all we really need to know about Ariel and Caliban is already in Shakespeare’s play. Psutka’s revelation about how the two became friends and then fell out is unnecessary, improbable and clarifies nothing in The Tempest. Second, the two-hander form forces Psutka to rely almost exclusively on telling rather than showing to convey his story since the plot’s movers, Sycorax and Prospero, remain offstage.